"Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it."
Edmund Burke. What happened on this Day in History?

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

This Day in History: Jul 23, 1982: The International Whaling Commission decides to end commercial whaling by 1985-86.

On 23 July 1982, members of the IWC voted by the necessary
three-quarters majority to implement a pause on commercial whaling. The
relevant text reads:

“

Notwithstanding the other
provisions of paragraph 10, catch limits for the killing for commercial
purposes of whales from all stocks for the 1986 coastal and the 1985/86
pelagic seasons and thereafter shall be zero. This provision will be
kept under review, based upon the best scientific advice, and by 1990 at
the latest the Commission will undertake a comprehensive assessment of
the effects of this decision on whale stocks and consider modification
of this provision and the establishment of other catch limits.[15]

”

Whaling is the hunting of whales primarily for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC.[1]
Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling
and harvesting beached whales. Industrial whaling emerged with organized
fleets in the 17th century; competitive national whaling industries in
the 18th and 19th centuries; and the introduction of factory ships along with the concept of whale harvesting in the first half of the 20th century.

As technology increased and demand for the resources remained,
catches far exceeded the sustainable limit for whale stocks. In the late
1930s, more than 50,000 whales were killed annually[2] and by the middle of the century whale stocks were not being replenished. In 1986, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) banned commercial whaling so that stocks might recover.

While the moratorium has been successful in averting the extinction
of whale species due to overhunting, contemporary whaling is subject to
intense debate. Pro-whaling countries, notably Japan, wish to lift the
ban on stocks that they claim have recovered sufficiently to sustain
limited hunting. Anti-whaling countries and environmental groups say
whale species remain vulnerable and that whaling is immoral,
unsustainable, and should remain banned permanently.

The history of whaling is very extensive, stretching back for millennia. This article discusses the history of whaling up to the commencement of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986.

Prehistoric to medieval times

Humans have engaged in whaling since prehistoric times. The oldest
known method of catching cetaceans is simply to drive them ashore by
placing a number of small boats between the animal and the open sea and
to frighten them with noise and activity, herding them towards shore in
an attempt to beach them. Typically, this was used for small species, such as Pilot Whales, Belugas, Porpoises and Narwhals. This is described in A Pattern of Islands (1952) by British administrator Arthur Grimble, who lived in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands for several decades.

The next step was to employ a drogue (a semi-floating object) such as a wooden drum or an inflated sealskin which was tied to an arrow or a harpoon.
Once the arrow or harpoon had been shot into a whale's body it was
hoped that, after a period of time, the buoyancy and drag from the
drogue would cause the whale to tire, allowing it to be approached and
killed. Several cultures around the world practiced whaling with
drogues, including the Ainu, Inuit, Native Americans, and the Basque people of the Bay of Biscay. Bangudae Petroglyphs, an archaeological evidence from Ulsan in South Korea suggests that drogues, harpoons and lines were being used to kill small whales as early as 6000 BC[1]Petroglyphs (rock carvings) unearthed by researchers at the Museum of Kyungpook National University show Sperm Whales, Humpback Whales and North Pacific Right Whales
surrounded by boats. Similarly-aged cetacean bones were also found in
the area, reflecting the importance of whales in the prehistoric diet of
coastal people.

A description of the assistance a little European technology could
bring to skilled indigenous whale hunters is given in the memoir of John R. Jewitt, an Englishman blacksmith who spent three years as a captive of the Mowachaht (Nuu-chah-nulth/ Nootka) people in 1802-1805. Jewitt also mentions the importance of whale meat and oil to the diet. Whaling was integral to the cultures and economies of other indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest as well, notably the Makah and Klallam. For other groups, most famously the Haida, whales appear prominently as totems.

Basque whaling

The first mention of Basque whaling was made in 1059,[2] when it was said to have been practiced at the Basque town of Bayonne. The fishery spread to what is now the Spanish Basque Country in 1150, when King Sancho the Wise of Navarre granted petitions for the warehousing of such commodities as whalebone (baleen).[2] At first, they only hunted the whale they called sarda, or the North Atlantic Right Whale, using watchtowers (known as vigias) to look for their distinctive twin vapour spouts.

By the 14th century they were making "seasonal trips" to the English Channel and southern Ireland. The fishery spread to Terranova (Labrador and Newfoundland) in the second quarter of the 16th century,[3] and to Iceland at least by the early 17th century.[4] They established whaling stations at the former, mainly in Red Bay,[5]
and probably established some in the latter as well. In Terranova they
hunted bowheads and right whales, while in Iceland they appear to have
only hunted the latter.

The fishery in Terranova declined for a variety of reasons. Principal among them the conflicts between Spain and other European powers during the late 16th and early 17th centuries, attacks by hostile Inuit, declining whale populations, and perhaps the opening up of the Spitsbergen fishery in 1611.

The first voyages to Spitsbergen by the English, Dutch, and Danish relied on Basque specialists, with the Basque provinces sending out their own whaler in 1612. The following season San Sebastián and Saint-Jean-de-Luz sent out a combined eleven or twelve whalers to the Spitsbergen fishery, but most were driven off by the Dutch and English.[6] Two more ships were sent by a merchant in San Sebastián in 1615, but both were driven away by the Dutch.

They continued whale fishing in Iceland and Spitsbergen at least into the 18th century, but Basque whaling in those regions appears to have ended with the commencement of the Seven Years' War (1756–63).[7]

Greenland whaling

Encouraged by reports of whales off the coast of Spitsbergen in 1610, the English Muscovy Company
sent a whaling expedition there the following year. The expedition was a
disaster, with both ships sent being lost. The crews returned to
England in a ship from Hull.[8] The following year two more ships were sent. Other countries followed suit, with Amsterdam and San Sebastian
each sending a ship north. The latter ship returned to Spain with a
full cargo of oil. Such a fabulous return resulted in a fleet of
whaleships being sent to Spitsbergen in 1613. The Muscovy Company sent
seven, backed by a monopoly charter granted by King James I. They met with twenty other whaleships (eleven-twelve Basque, five French, and three Dutch), as well as a London interloper, which were either ordered away or forced to pay a fine of some sort.[9] The United Provinces, France, and Spain all protested against this treatment, but James I held fast to his claim of sovereignty over Spitsbergen.

The following three and a half decades witnessed numerous clashes
between the various nations (as well as infighting among the English),
often merely posturing, but sometimes resulting in bloodshed. This
jealousy stemmed as much from the mechanics of early whaling as from
straightforward international animosities. In the first years of the
fishery England, France, the United Provinces and later Denmark-Norway
shipped expert Basque whalemen for their expeditions. At the time Basque
whaling relied on the utilization of stations ashore where blubber
could be processed into oil. In order to allow a rapid transference of
this technique to Spitsbergen, suitable anchorages had to be selected,
of which there were only a limited number, in particular on the west
coast of the island.[10]

Early in 1614 the Dutch formed the Noordsche Compagnie
(Northern Company), a cartel composed of several independent chambers
(each representing a particular port). The company sent fourteen ships
supported by three or four men-of-war this year, while the English sent a
fleet of thirteen ships and pinnaces. Equally matched, they agreed to
split the coast between themselves, to the exclusion of third parties.
The English received the four principal harbors in the middle of the
west coast, while the Dutch could settle anywhere to the south or north.
The agreement explicitly stated that it was only meant to last for this
season.[11]

In 1615 the Dutch arrived with a fleet of eleven ships and three men-of-war under Adriaen Block, occupied Fairhaven, Bell Sound, and Horn Sound
by force, and built the first permanent structure on Spitsbergen: a
wooden hut to store their equipment in. The ten ships sent by the
Muscovy Company were relegated to the south side of Fairhaven, Sir Thomas Smith's Bay, and Ice Sound.[12] The Danes meanwhile sent a fleet of five sail under Gabriel Kruse to demand a toll from the foreign whalers and in doing so assert Christian IV's claim of sovereignty over the region, but both the English and Dutch rebuffed his efforts—two ships from Bordeaux chartered by a merchant in San Sebastian were also sent away by the Dutch.[13]
The following year, 1616, the English, with a fleet of ten ships,
occupied all the major harbors, appropriated the Dutch hut, and made a
rich haul, while the Dutch, preoccupied with Jan Mayen, only sent four ships to Spitsbergen, which "kept together in odd places... and made a poor voyage."[14]

In 1617 a ship from Vlissingen whaling in Horn Sound had its cargo seized by the English vice-admiral.[15]
Angry, the following season the Dutch sent nearly two dozen ships to
Spitsbergen. Five of the fleet attacked two English ships, killing three
men in the process, and also burned down the English station in Horn
Sound.[16]
Negotiations between the two nations followed in 1619, with James I,
while still claiming sovereignty, would not enforce it for the following
three seasons.[17] When this concession expired, the English twice (in 1623[18] and 1624[19]) tried to expel the Dutch from Spitsbergen, failing both times.

In 1619 the Dutch and Danes, who had sent their first whaling expedition to Spitsbergen in 1617, firmly settled themselves on Amsterdam Island,
a small island on the northwestern tip of Spitsbergen; while the
English did the same in the fjords to the south. The Danish-Dutch
settlement came to be called Smeerenburg,
which would become the centre of operations for the latter in the first
decades of the fishery. Numerous place names attest to the various
nations' presence, including Copenhagen Bay (Kobbefjorden) and Danes Island (Danskøya), where the Danes established a station from 1631–58; Port Louis or Refuge Français (Hamburgbukta), where the French had a station from 1633–38, until they were driven away by the Danes (see below); and finally English Bay (Engelskbukta),
as well as the number of features named by English whalemen and
explorers—for example, Isfjorden, Bellsund, and Hornsund, to name a few.

Hostilities continued after 1619. In 1626 nine ships from Hull and York destroyed the Muscovy Company's fort and station in Bell Sound, and sailed to their own in Midterhukhamna.[20]
Here they were found by the heavily-armed flagship of the London
whaling fleet; a two-hour battle ensued, resulting in defeat for the
Hull and York fleet and their expulsion from Spitsbergen.[21] In 1630 both the ships of Hull and Yarmouth,
who had recently joined the trade, were driven away clean (empty) by
the ships from London. From 1631-33 the Danes, French, and Dutch
quarreled with each other, resulting in the expulsion of the Danes from
Smeerenburg and the French from Copenhagen Bay. In 1634 the Dutch burned
down one of the Danes' huts.[22] There were also two battles this season, one between the English and French (the latter won)[23] and the other between London and Yarmouth (the latter won, as well).[24] In 1637[25]
and again in 1638 the Danes drove the French out of Port Louis and
seized their cargoes. In the former year they also seized a French ship
in the open sea and detained it in Copenhagen Bay,[26]
while in the latter year they also held two Dutch ships captive in the
same bay for over a month, which led to protests from the Dutch.[27]
Following the events of 1638 hostilities for the most part ceased, with
the exception of a few minor incidents in the 1640s between the French
and Danes, as well as between Copenhagen and Hamburg and London and Yarmouth, respectively.

The species hunted was the Bowhead Whale,
a baleen whale that yielded large quantities of oil and baleen. The
whales entered the fjords in the spring following the breakup of the
ice. They were spotted by the whalemen from suitable vantage points, and
pursued by shallops, chaloupes or chalupas, which
were manned by six men. (These terms derive from the Basque word
"txalupa", used to name the whaling boats that were widely utilized
during the golden era of Basque whaling in Labrador in the 16th
century.) The whale was harpooned and lanced to death and either towed
to the stern of the ship or to the shore at low tide, where men with
long knives would flense (cut up) the blubber. The blubber was boiled in
large copper kettles and cooled in large wooden vessels, after which it
was funneled into casks. The stations at first only consisted of tents
of sail and crude furnaces, but were soon replaced by more permanent
structures of wood and brick, such as Smeerenburg for the Dutch, Lægerneset for the English, and Copenhagen Bay for the Danes.

Beginning in the 1630s, for the Dutch at least, whaling expanded into
the open sea. Gradually whaling in the open sea and along the ice floes
to the west of Spitsbergen replaced bay whaling. At first the blubber
was tried out at the end of the season at Smeerenburg or elsewhere along
the coast, but after mid-century the stations were abandoned entirely
in favor of processing the blubber upon the return of the ship to port.
The English meanwhile stuck resolutely to bay whaling, and didn't make
the transfer to pelagic (offshore) whaling until long after.

In 1719, the Dutch began "regular and intensive whaling" in the Davis Strait.[28] Nevertheless, encouraged by import duty exemptions, the South Sea Company financed 172 unprofitable whaling voyages from London's Howland Dock
between 1725-32. In 1733 the Government introduced a 'bounty' of £1.00
per ship ton, increasing to £2.00 per ton in 1749. These subsidies along
with high oil and whalebone prices encouraged expansion. London sent
out six whalers in 1749; 45 in 1777 and 91 in 1788. However, reductions
in the bounty, and wars with America and France saw London's Greenland
fleet fall to 19 in 1796.

During the 17th and 18th century the people from the North Frisian Islands
enjoyed a reputation of being very skilled mariners, and most Dutch and
English whaling ships bound for Greenland and Svalbard would have a
crew of North Frisian islanders.[29] Especially Föhr
island has been recorded as a stronghold of whaling personnel. Around
the year 1700, Föhr had a total population of roughly 6,000 people,
1,600 of whom were whalers.[29]
At the height of Dutch whaling in the year 1762, 1,186 seamen from Föhr
were serving on Dutch whaling vessels alone and 25% of all shipmasters
on Dutch whaling vessels were people from Föhr.[30] Another example is the London-based South Sea Company whose commanding officers and harpooners were exclusively from Föhr.[29]

The British would continue to send out whalers to the Arctic fishery into the 20th century, sending their last on the eve of the First World War.

The oldest written mention of whaling in Japanese records is from Kojiki, the oldest Japanese historical book written in the 7th century AD. In this book whale meat was eaten by Emperor Jimmu. In Man'yōshū,
the oldest anthology of poems in the 8th century, the word "Whaling"
(いさなとり) was frequently used in depicting the ocean or beaches.

One of the first records of whaling by the use of harpoons are from
the 1570s at Morosaki, a bay attached to Ise Bay. This method of
whaling, known as the harpoon method (tsukitori-ho) spread to Kii
(before 1606), Shikoku (1624), northern Kyushu (1630s), and Nagato
(around 1672).

Kakuemon Wada, later known as Kakuemon Taiji, was said to have
invented net whaling, or the net method (amitori-ho) sometime between
1675 and 1677. This method soon spread to Shikoku (1681) and northern
Kyushu (1684)

Using the techniques developed by Taiji,
the Japanese mainly hunted four species of whale, the North Pacific
right (Semi-Kujira), the humpback (Zato-Kujira), the fin
(Nagasu-Kujira), and the gray whale
(Ko-Kujira or Koku-Kujira). They also caught the occasional blue (Shiro
Nagasu-Kujira), sperm (Makko-Kujira), or sei/Bryde's whale
(Iwashi-Kujira).

Whaling has been frequently mentioned in Japanese historical texts.[31]

In 1853, the US naval officer Matthew Perry
forced open Japan's doors to the world. One of the purposes of this was
to gain access to ports for the American whaling fleet in the
north-west Pacific Ocean. The traditional whaling was eventually replaced in the late 19th century and early 20th century with modern methods.

Yankee open-boat whaling

Beginning in the late colonial period, the United States, with a
strong seafaring tradition in New England, an advanced shipbuilding
industry, and access to the oceans grew to become the pre-eminent
whaling nation in the world by the 1830s.

American whaling's origins were in New York and New England, including Cape Cod,
Massachusetts and nearby cities. The oil was in demand chiefly for
lamps. Hunters in small watercraft pursued right whales from shore. By
the 18th century, whaling in Nantucket
had become a highly lucrative deep-sea industry, with voyages extending
for years at a time and with vessels traveling as far as South Pacific
waters. During the American Revolution,
the British navy targeted American whaling ships as legitimate prizes,
while in turn many whalers fitted out as privateers against the British.
Whaling recovered after the war ended in 1783 and the industry began to
prosper, using bases at Nantucket and then New Bedford.
Whalers took greater economic risks to turn major profits: expanding
their hunting grounds and securing foreign and domestic workforces for
the Pacific. Investment decisions and financing arrangements were set up
so that managers of whaling ventures shared their risks by selling some
equity claims but retained a substantial portion due to moral hazard
considerations. As a result, they had little incentive to consider the
correlation between their own returns and those of others in planning
their voyages. This stifled diversity in whaling voyages and increased
industry-wide risk.[36]

Ten thousand seamen manned the ships. More than three thousand
African American seamen shipped out on whaleships from New Bedford
between 1800 and 1860, about 20% of the entire whaling force.[37] In port the most successful of the whaling merchants was Jonathan Bourne, who opened offices in New Bedford in 1848. Chandlery
shops and storage rooms for whaling outfits occupied the first floor.
Lofts and rigging lofts occupied the upper stories; the counting-rooms
were on the second floor, with counters and iron railings fencing off
the tall mahogany desks at which the bookkeepers stood up, or sat on
high stools; about the walls were models of whaleships and whaling
prints.

Early whaling efforts were concentrated on right whales and
humpbacks, which were found near the American coast. As these
populations declined and the market for whale products (especially whale
oil) grew, American whalers began hunting the Sperm Whale. The Sperm Whale was particularly prized for the reservoir of spermaceti (a dense waxy substance that burns with an exceedingly bright flame) housed in the spermaceti organ, located forward and above the skull. Hunting for the Sperm Whale forced whalers to sail farther from home in search of their quarry, eventually covering the globe.

Whale oil was vital in illuminating homes and businesses throughout
the world in the 19th century, and served as a dependable lubricant for
the machines powering the Industrial Revolution. Baleen (the long
keratin strips that hang from the top of whales' mouths) was used by
manufacturers in the United States and Europe to make consumer goods
such as buggy whips, fishing poles, corset stays and dress hoops.

New England ships began to explore and hunt in the southern oceans
after being driven out of the North Atlantic by British competition and
import duties. Ultimately, American entrepreneurs created a
mid-19th-century version of a global economic enterprise. This was the
golden age of American whaling.

An early winter in the North Pacific in September 1871 forced the
captains of an American whaling fleet in the Arctic to abandon their
ships. With 32 vessels trapped in the ice and provisions insufficient to
weather the nine-month winter, the captains ordered the abandonment of
the ships and the three million dollars' worth of property carried on
board but in the process saved the lives of over 1,200 men, women, and
children.[38]

From the Civil War, when Confederate raiders targeted American
whalers, through the early 20th century, the American whaling industry
was overwhelmed by new, crippling economic competition, especially from kerosene, which was a superior fuel for lighting. New Bedford, once the fourth busiest port in the United States, gave up whaling.[39]

Currently, the town of New Bedford is experiencing a revival since the 1996 establishment of New Bedford Whaling National Historic Site.
This site, along with the Whaling Museum, capitalizes on the rich
culture of whaling and the immigrant and free black populations that
made up the "City that Lit the World."

Nantucket joined in on the trade in 1690 when they sent for one Ichabod Padduck to instruct them in the methods of whaling.[41]
The south side of the island was divided into three and a half mile
sections, each one with a mast erected to look for the spouts of right
whales. Each section had a temporary hut for the five men assigned to
that area, with a sixth man standing watch at the mast. Once a whale was
sighted, rowing boats were sent from the shore, and if the whale was
successfully harpooned and lanced to death, it was towed ashore, flensed (that is, its blubber was cut off), and the blubber boiled in cauldrons known as "trypots."

Even when Nantucket
sent out vessels to fish for whales offshore, they would still come to
the shore to boil the blubber, doing this well into the 18th century.

The South Sea fishery

Britain

Samuel Enderby, along with Alexander Champion and John St. Barbe,
using American vessels and crews, fitted out twelve whaleships for the
southern fishery in 1776. More were sent in 1777 and 1778 before
political and economic troubles hampered the trade for some time.[42] In 1786, Alexander Champion, with his brother Benjamin, sent the first British whaler east of the Cape of Good Hope. She was the Triumph, Daniel Coffin, master.

On 1 September 1788, the 270 ton whaleship Emilia, owned by Samuel Enderby & Sons and commanded by Captain James Shields, departed London. The ship went west around Cape Horn into the Pacific Ocean to become the first ship of any nation to conduct whaling operations in the Southern Ocean. A crewman, Archelus Hammond of Nantucket, killed the first sperm whale there off the coast of Chile on 3 March 1789. Emilia returned to London on 12 March 1790 with a cargo of 139 tons of sperm oil.[43]

In 1784 the British had fifteen whaleships in the southern fishery, all from London.
By 1790 this port alone had sixty vessels employed in the trade.
Between 1793 and 1799 there was an average of sixty vessels in the
trade. The average increased to seventy-two in the years between 1800
and 1809.[44]

In 1819 the first British whaleship, the Syren (510 tons), under Frederick Coffin of Nantucket, was sent to the Japan grounds, where she began whaling on 5 April 1820. She returned to London
on 21 April 1822 with 346 tons of sperm oil. The following year at
least nine British whalers were cruising on this ground, and by 1825 the
British had twenty-four vessels there.[45]

Despite this discovery, the number of vessels being fitted out
annually for the southern fishery declined from sixty-eight in 1820 to
thirty-one in 1824. In 1825 there were ninety ships in the southern
fishery, but by 1835 it had dwindled to sixty-one.

Fewer and fewer vessels were being fitted out, so that by 1843 only
nine vessels were clearing for the southern fishery. In 1859 the last
cargoes of sperm oil from British vessels were landed in London.

France

Having failed in an attempt to establish a colony of Nantucket whalemen in England, William Rotch, Sr. went to France in 1786 and was able to establish his colony in Dunkirk. The first two vessels to be fitted out were the Canton and the Mary. By 1789 Dunkirk had fourteen vessels in the trade sailing to Brazil, Walvis Bay,
and other areas of the South Atlantic to hunt sperm and right whales.
Just a year later Rotch sent the first French whalers into the Pacific.

There were twenty-four vessels sailing out of France
for the southern fishery by 1791, but the majority of these ships were
lost during the Anglo-French War that broke out two years later. Rotch
fled France, keeping subordinates there should war tensions ease and allow them to fit out ships for the southern fishery again.

The trade began to revive after hostilities, but when Napoleon came to power Rotch's holdings in Dunkirk were seized. After the Napoleonic Wars
the government issued subsidies in an attempt to revive the trade once
more, but it wasn't until 1832, with a further increase in bounties,
that several whalers were sent by C. A. Gaudin on sperm whaling voyages.

In 1835 the first French whaleship, the Gange (573 tons), Narcisse
Chaudiere, master, reached the Gulf of Alaska and discovered an
abundance of right whales. Within a decade a large number of American
and French vessels would be cruising on this ground. The following year,
1836, the first French whaler had reached New Zealand, but by the 1840s, with the decline of bay whaling, very few French vessels would make their way here.

In 1851 a law was passed to encourage the trade, at which point the
French had seventeen vessels employed in it. It wasn't successful. The
last whalers returned in 1868.

Rorqual whaling

By the 1850s, the Euro-American whalemen made a serious attempt at catching such rorquals as the blue and fin whale. This era was inaugurated by one Thomas Welcome Roys. Roys, while cruising south of Iceland in the 441-ton Hannibal, was able to kill a sulfurbottom (blue whale) with a Brown's bomb gun in 1855.[46]
He realized that if he had a better way to dispatch such large rorquals
as the sulfurbottom that he could easily fill his ship's hold with
whale oil. Due to his ship having taken a beating in a heavy gale in
these waters, he was forced to put into Lorient, France. While there, he ordered for "two rifles in pairs for killing [rorqual] whales," staying long enough in France to see them nearly completed, then leaving for home in a steamer, and, when finished, having the guns sent by way of England to the US.

The following spring, he went out in the 175-ton brig William F. Safford to test his experimental whaling guns.[47] The guns Roys had ordered from France were lost on the voyage out, so he had to persuade C. C. Brand of Norwich,
Conn., to let him use his bomb lance, but to increase his bomb missiles
to three pounds in order to ensure greater success. Roys sailed to
Bjornøya, where he encountered vast numbers of blue, fin, and humpbacks.[48] He fired at around sixty, with only a single blue whale being saved. He then sailed to Novaya Zemlya, capturing two humpbacks there. After cruising off Russia and Norway, he came to anchor at Queenstown, Ireland, and thence went to England to reconstruct his lost French-made guns.[49]
He had Sir Joseph Whitworth manufacture him some rifled whaling guns
and shells. Roys returned to his ship, sailing from Queenstown on 26
November for the Bay of Biscay.
Here, when testing one of the guns, he blew off his left hand, having
to amputate it "as well as we could with razors." They sailed to Oporto, Portugal, where Roys's lower arm had to be amputated.[50]

Having failed in securing whales on another cruise in 1857, Roys
redesigned his gun. This time, the rocket-powered harpoons proved too
weak to penetrate the whales correctly. Undaunted, he made another
cruise, this time to South Georgia, but he wasn't able to take any whales.[51] He cruised north to put into Lisbon, sailed to Africa, then west to the West Indies in early 1859, where he was able to capture several humpbacks.[52]

In 1861 Roys joined forces with the wealthy New York pyrotechnic manufacturer Gustavus Adolphus Lilliendahl in order to perfect his "whaling rocket".[53] In mid-May 1862 Lilliendahl purchased the 158-ton bark Reindeer, appointing Roys as her master.[54] Unfortunately, she was seized on suspicion of being a slaver, and when everything was finally cleared up, she sailed to Iceland, but arrived too late for the summer whaling season, and had to return home and wait until next year.

In 1863 Roys refitted the Reindeer and once again sailed to Iceland,
but he damaged his rudder while off the coast of the island, and was
only able to save one of the many whales he shot that season.[55]
Roys was much more successful the following season of 1864, saving
eleven of the twenty whales that were shot, in part because he was using
stronger harpoons and better lines. In November 1864 Roys obtained the
rights to establish a shore station on the coast of Iceland from the Danish government. He acquired the twelve-ton, sixty-two-foot iron steamer Visionary in Scotland, and returned to Iceland in the spring of 1865. He arrived at Seydisfjordur on 14 May, finding his bark Reindeer
had already arrived there in April, loaded with whaling equipment,
boilers, steam engines, timber, bricks, and everything necessary for the
construction of his shore station. Lilliendahl supplied them with
defective rockets, and before the station was built, they were forced to
tow the dead whales to the Reindeer, where they were flensed and processed the old fashioned way.[56]

After his rockets were rebuilt, Roys and his crew set out in the Visionary,
with whaleboats in tow astern, to search for rorquals. Once a whale was
sighted, the crews went to their respective boats, and if a whale was
successfully captured, they'd heave the carcass to the surface with a
steam winch, fasten it to the side of the ship, and tow it back to Seydisfjordur. For the 1865 season they took twenty or more whales, but also lost another twenty.[57] The next season, 1866, he used the Sileno and the iron steamers Staperaider and Vigilant-
identical ship, bark-rigged, 116-feet long, each carrying two
whaleboats and equipped with steam tryworks and powerful winches to
bring aboard large strips of blubber when flensing whales.[58]
They killed ninety whales this season, with forty-three or forty-four
being saved to produce 3,000 barrels of oil. Roys and Lilliendahl parted
company at the end of the season, with Lilliendahl continuing on in
Iceland for another year. Using the Vigilant and Staperaider, he only caught thirty-six whales. After this season, he departed as well.[59]

Roys and Lilliendahl found imitators in Iceland,
in the form of the Danish naval officer Cap. Otto C. Hammer and the
Dutchman Cap. C. J. Bottemanne. The former formed the Danish Fishing
Company in 1865, and wound up operations in 1871; while the latter
formed the Netherlands Whaling Company in 1869, closing down operations a
year after Hammer.[60]

In 1866 James Dawson, a Victorian emigrant from Clackmannanshire, Scotland, and a man named Warren tried catching whales in Saanich Inlet, British Columbia, but lost all three whales they struck to bad weather.[61] In 1868 Dawson joined in a partnership with a 27-year-old from San Francisco, Abel Douglass, along with two other Californians, Bruce and Woodward.[61] They were joined by Roys, who chartered the 83-three-foot, 25-ton steamer Emma.
His first cruise was a disaster, while the second cruise from early
September to October he reportedly struck four whales, killing three,
but lost all three in dense fogs.[62] Dawson began whaling on 26 August with the 47-ton Kate, cruising in Saanich Inlet, where they managed to catch eight whales using bomb lances, despite thick fog.

Persistent as ever, Roys formed the Victoria Whaling Adventurers Company on 22 October, and in January 1869 he sent the Emma to erect a shore station in Barkley Sound, Vancouver Island. Again, Roys was met with by failure, having made fast to only one whale. The harpoon broke free, and the whale escaped.[63]
He was defeated once more by the Dawson and Douglass Whaling Company,
who took fourteen whales by mid-September 1869 to produce 20,000 gallons
of oil.

Dawson and Douglass then joined forces with a man named Lipsett,
forming the Union Whaling Company. They only took four whales during two
cruises in the winter of 1869-70, forcing the company to suspend
operations as of 3 February 1870.[64]
Lipsett reorganized and formed the Howe Sound Company, while Dawson
found new partners had formed the new Dawson & Douglass Whaling
Company on 27 June 1870. Another unidentified group of whalemen using
"the Roys Rocket" arrived in June, charting the schooner Surprise and hunting whales in Barkley Sound.
Only one of the companies used a vessel equipped with a whaleboat,
while the others apparently sent rowing boats out from their shore
camps. The three firms only took thirty-two whales, for a yield of
75,800 gallons of oil.[65]

The next season, seemingly undeterred, Roys returned to British Columbia in the 179-ton brig Byzantium on 10 May 1871. He constructed a station at Cumshewa Inlet in the Queen Charlotte Islands, and fitted out the Byzantium
with proper onboard tryworks. Douglass split from Dawson and paired
with the Victorian vintner and publican James Strachan, while Dawson
rejoined Lipsett and formed the British Columbia Whaling Company. Dawson
and Lipsett's company produced 20,000 gallons of oil in 1871, with
Douglass and Strachan producing about 15,000. Both companies lost money
on their ventures, with the former soon being liquidated. The Kate
and other possessions of the company went on the auction block in March
1872. The schooner and equipment went to former company partners Robert
Wallace and James Hutcheson, who unsuccessfully attempted to continue
whaling operations. We last hear of them in July 1873, when the Kate was said to have been cruising near Lasqueti Island, in the Strait of Georgia, with little success. By the end of the year the schooner had been sold.

As usual, Roys fared the worst. The Byzantium struck the rocks in Weynton Passage, Johnstone Strait,
forcing the men to abandon her and row ashore, to spend a frigid night
huddled on the beach. Roys never operated a whaling company again.

In 1877, John Nelson Fletcher, a pyrotechnist, and the former Confederate soldier from North Carolina,
Robert L. Suits, modified Roys's rocket, marketing it as the
"California Whaling Rocket". They used the small five in a half ton
steam launch Rocket of San Francisco in 1878, killing 35 humpback, fin, and blue whales with their rocket outside the harbour and north to Point Reyes.[66]

In 1880, Thomas P. H. Whitelaw fitted out the 44-ton steamer Daisy Whitelaw of San Francisco. With the California Whaling Rocket she "very successfully" hunted fin whales though the Farallon Islands to Drakes Bay.[67] That same year, some of the rockets were purchased by the Northwest Whaling Company, or Northwest Trading Company, of Killisnoo Island, on the west coast of Admiralty Island, Southeast Alaska. They hunted fins and humpbacks, firing rockets from the deck of the company's small steamer Favorite, as well as from whaleboats. They established a whaling and trading station on Killisnoo Island,
giving a few jobs at the whale processing plant to both Killisnoo and
Angoon residents. After a few years of whaling, the station was turned
into a herring processing plant, going out of business in 1885.

In the late 1870s schooners began hunting humpbacks in the Gulf of Maine. In 1880, with the decline of the menhaden fishery, steamers began to switch to hunting fin and humpback whales
using bomb lances in what has been called a "shoot-and-salvage" fishery
because of the high-rate of loss due to whales sinking, lines breaking,
etc. The first was the steamer Mabel Bird, which towed whale carcasses to an oil processing plant at the head of Linekin Bay in Boothbay Harbor.
Soon there were five such factories in Boothbay Harbour processing
whales. At its height in 1885 four or five steamers were engaged in the
Menhaden whale fishery, but it dwindled to one by the end of the decade.
Fin whales accounted for about half the catch, with over 100 whales being killed in some years. The fishery ended in the late 1890s.

Before Svend Foyn
launched the industry into the modern era, there were the Norwegians
Jacob Nicolai Walsøe and Arent Christian Dahl. The former was probably
the first person to suggest mounting a harpoon gun in the bows of a
steamship, while the latter experimented with an explosive harpoon in Varanger Fjord
(1857–1860). While they were the first in their class, it was Foyn who
successfully adopted these ideas and put them into practice. In 1864,
his methods, through trial and error, would lead to the development of
the modern whaling trade.

During the 1930s, as German whaling in the Antarctic was coming about, the Nazis maintained that a gunsmith from Bremerhaven,
H. G. Cordes, was responsible for Foyn's invention, and should thus
receive credit for having brought whaling into the modern era. Foyn had
indeed ordered material from Cordes, but he had found it unserviceable,
and only experimented with his gun for a season. Cordes, working with
John P. Rechten of Bremen,
had developed an improved version of the Greener gun in 1856. They made
a second version of this swivel gun with two barrels, side by side,
with the left barrel shooting a harpoon and the right a bomb lance.
Their invention was successfully experimented with in the North Sea in 1867. With this success, Rechten attempted to introduce this idea on the American market two years later, but it isn't known as to whether he succeeded or not.

Modern whaling

At first slow whales were caught by men hurling harpoons from small
open boats. Early harpoon guns were unsuccessful until Norwegian Svend Foyn
invented a new, improved version in 1863 that used a harpoon with a
flexible joint between the head and shaft. Norway invented many new
techniques and disseminated them worldwide. Cannon-fired harpoons,
strong cables, and steam winches were mounted on maneuverable,
steam-powered catcher boats. They made possible the targeting of large
and fast-swimming whale species that were taken to shore-based stations
for processing. Breach-loaded cannons were introduced in 1925; pistons
were introduced in 1947 to reduce recoil. These highly efficient devices
were too successful, for they reduced whale populations to the point
where large-scale commercial whaling became unsustainable. The shore
stations on the island of South Georgia were at the center of the
Antarctic whaling industry, from its beginnings in 1904 until the late
1920s when pelagic whaling increased. The activity on the island
remained substantial until around 1960, when Norwegian-British Antarctic
whaling came to an end.[68]

Finnmark

In February 1864, the Norwegian Svend Foyn set sail from Tønsberg, south of Oslo, in the schooner-rigged, steam-driven whale catcher Spes et Fides (Hope & Faith) on a voyage north to Finnmark to hunt rorquals such as the Blue and Fin Whale.
He had her fitted out like a minor man-of-war, with seven guns on her
forecastle, each firing a harpoon and grenade separately. Several whales
were seen, but only four were captured.[69]

He tried again in 1866 and 1867, but he could not catch a single
whale in the former season and only caught one whale the latter, while
two others were killed but lost. Experimenting with a harpoon gun that
fired a grenade and harpoon at the same time, Foyn was able to catch
thirty whales in 1868.[70] He patented his grenade-tipped harpoon gun two years later.

Foyn was given a virtual monopoly on the trade in Finnmark in 1873, which lasted until 1882.[71] Despite this, local citizens established a whaling company in 1876, and soon others defied his monopoly and formed companies.

With the commencement of unrestricted catching in 1883, the number of
whaling stations increased from eight to sixteen, and the number of
whale catchers from twelve to twenty-three.[72]
Catching material peaked in 1886–88 with an average of about thirty-one
catchers operating each season, while peak catching was not reached
until 1892–93 and 1896–98, when between 1,000 and 1,200 whales were
caught each year.
Only half the number of whales were taken in 1899, and catching
continued to decline until 1902, when it improved somewhat. By this time
most of the catching was done far from the coast. The last station
closed down in 1904.

Iceland

In 1883 the first whaling station was established in Alptafjordur, Iceland.
In the first season, using an 84 gross ton whale catcher, only eight
whales were caught, but in the following season (1884) twenty-five were
caught, all of which were Blue Whales, with the exception of two.[73]

In 1889 another station was established. Between 1890 and 1894 three
more companies, all Norwegian, established themselves in Iceland. Seeing
the success of these companies, another five established whaling
stations on the island between 1896 and 1903. Catching peaked in 1902,
when 1,305 whales were caught to produce 40,000 barrels of oil. By 1907,
only 268 whales were caught, and by 1910 the score stood at a mere 170.

A ban on whaling was imposed by the Althing in 1915. It was not until
1935 that an Icelandic company established another whaling station. It
shut down after only five seasons. In 1948, another Icelandic company,
Hvalur H/F, purchased a naval base at the head of Hvalfjordur and
converted it into a whaling station. Between 1948 and 1975, an average
of 250 Fin, 65 Sei, and 78 Sperm Whales were taken annually, as well as a few Blue and Humpback Whales.
Unlike the majority of commercial whaling at the time, this operation
was based on the sale of frozen meat and meat meal, rather than on oil.
Most of the meat was exported to England, while the meal was sold locally as cattle feed.[74]

Faroe Islands

The Norwegian Hans Albert Grøn established the first whaling station in the Faroe Islands in 1894 at Gjánoyri near Langasandur on Streymoy,[75] situated in the sound between the islands of Streymoy and Eysturoy.
He caught forty-six whales his first season, intercepting the whales as
they migrated north. He operated alone the first four seasons, until
Christian Salvesen & Co. formed a company in Oslo for whaling from the islands.

In 1898 Andorsen & Neumann established a whaling station in the village of Norðdepil on Borðoy in the Northern Islands (Norðoyar). In the following year P. Michelsen from Sandefjord took over. The whaling station in Norðdepil closed down in 1920.

In 1901 Peter O. Bogen set up a whaling station in Lopra on the island of Suðuroy
together with H.G. Thomsen and P. Mortensen. Later there were Faroese
owners. The whaling station in Lopra closed down in 1953. Three more
companies arrived between 1902 and 1905. One was Norwegian, another Danish, and the last a joint Danish-Norwegian concern. C. Evesen opened a whaling station in Funningsfjørður on Eysturoy in 1901.[76] In 1902 O. Finsen, A. Benzon and F. Børgesen opened a whaling station in Signabøur on Streymoy. It was operated until 1912. In 1902 Michelsen from Norway built a whaling station in the unpopulated bay of Selvík, which is located on the island of Vágar on the southern side of the fjord of Sørvágur.
The whaling station was in operation until 1912. Við Áir whaling
station was built in 1905 and was the last whaling station in operation.
It closed down in 1984. The buildings and the equipment are still
there. In the autumn of 2006 the Minister of Culture, Jógvan á Lakjuni,
appointed a committee to consider the conservation of the whaling
station við Áir. It was charged with submitting a report to the Minister
in spring 2007. In May 2007 The Faroese Ministry of Culture
(Mentamálaráðið) published a Provisional report on the conservation of the whaling station as a maritime museum - The Whaling Station við Áir.
In the report the committee recommends, that "Considering its
importance as an element of Faroese and even international 20th century
industrial and maritime history, the Whaling Station við Áir should be
conserved." Furthermore they recommend that the whaling station will be
made into a maritime museum with activities for the visitors.[77]

Peak catching was reached in 1909, when 773 whales were caught to
produce 13,850 barrels of oil. By 1913 the production of oil had dropped
to 3,515 barrels. In 1917, with the war and poor catches, whaling was
suspended from the islands. Four companies resumed catching in 1920. The
results were disappointing; with only one Norwegian company staying at
the islands as late as 1930. From 1933 the two remaining whaling
stations in Lopra and Við Áir were taken over by Faroese owners. Further
attempts were made to revive catching in the Faroes during the 1930s
and after the Second World War, with the last attempt being made in 1962–64. The whaling station Við Áir stayed open until 1984 with some activity.[78] From 1977 to 1984 the whaling station Við Áir was owned by the Faroese government.

Spitsbergen

In 1903, the Norwegian Christen Christensen sent the first factory ship, the wooden steamship Telegraf (737 gross tons), to Spitsbergen. She returned to Sandefjord in September with 1,960 barrels of oil produced from a catch of fifty-seven whales—of which forty-two were Blue Whales.[79]

He sent a larger ship, the 1,517 gross ton Admiralen, to
Spitsbergen the following season (1904). She returned with a cargo of
5,100 barrels from 154 whales. By 1905 there were eight companies
operating around Spitsbergen and Bear Island,
while seven (using fifteen whale catchers) were there in 1906–07. The
peak had been reached in 1905, when 559 whales (337 Blue) were caught to
produce 18,660 barrels. Only a quarter of this was produced in 1908.
Two companies left in 1907, and another two the following year.
As the three companies remaining produced a dismal amount of oil in
1912, they decided to suspend operations. Two unsuccessful attempts were
made in 1920 and 1926–27 to revive catching in Spitsbergen waters—since
that time only Northern Bottlenose and Minke Whales have been hunted there by converted Norwegian fishing boats.

1986 moratorium

The 1970s saw the beginning of the global anti-whaling movement. In 1972 the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment[11] at Stockholm adopted a proposal that recommended a ten-year moratorium on commercial whaling to allow whale stocks to recover.[12] The reports of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species[13] in 1977 and 1981 identified many species of whales as being in danger of extinction.
At the same time, a number of non-whaling and anti-whaling states
began to join the IWC and eventually gained a majority over the whaling
nations. Some countries who were previously major whaling forces, like
the United States, became strong proponents of the anti-whaling cause.
These nations called for the IWC to reform its policies and to
incorporate newly discovered scientific data regarding whales in its
proposed regulations.[14]

On 23 July 1982, members of the IWC voted by the necessary
three-quarters majority to implement a pause on commercial whaling. The measure passed by 25 votes to seven, with five abstentions.[16]

Japan, Norway, Peru, and the Soviet Union (later replaced by Russia)
lodged formal objections, since the moratorium was not based on advice
from the Scientific Committee. Japan and Peru later withdrew their
objections (Japan's withdrawal was precipitated by the US threatening to
reduce their fishing quota within US waters if the objection was not
withdrawn. However, by 1988 the US had eliminated Japanese fishing
quotas anyway. It was after this that the Japanese began scientific
whaling. [17]).
In 2002, Iceland was allowed to rejoin IWC with a reservation to the
moratorium (Iceland withdrew from IWC in 1992), but this reservation is
not recognised as a valid objection by many IWC members. In addition,
Italy, Mexico, and New Zealand do not consider the ICRW to be in force
between their countries and Iceland. None of these countries, however,
has mounted any legal challenge to Iceland's membership of the IWC.[18]

As the moratorium applies only to commercial whaling, whaling under
the scientific-research and aboriginal-subsistence provisions of the
ICRW is still allowed. However, environmental groups dispute the claim
of research "as a disguise for commercial whaling, which is banned."[19][20] Since 1994, Norway, has been whaling commercially and Iceland began hunting commercially in September 2006. Since 1986, Japan
has been whaling under scientific research permits. The US and several
other nations are whaling under aboriginal whaling auspices. Norway
lodged a protest to the zero catch limits in 1992 and is not bound by
them. Anti-whaling countries and lobbies accuse Japan's scientific
whaling of being a front for commercial whaling.

The Japanese government
argues that the refusal of anti-whaling nations to accept simple head
counts of whale population as a measure of recovery of whale species
justifies its continuing studies on sex and age of population
distributions, and further points out that IWC regulations specifically
require that whale meat
obtained by scientific whaling not go to waste. Japan, on the other
hand, has raised objections to U.S. aboriginal subsistence whaling,
generally seen to be in retaliation to anti-whaling nation's (including
the US's) objections to aboriginal subsistence whaling for several
Japanese fishing communities, which traditionally hunted whales until
the imposition of the moratorium.

In May 1994, the IWC also voted to create the 11,800,000-square-mile (31,000,000 km2) Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.[21] The vote to adopt the sanctuary resolution was twenty-three in favour, one opposed (Japan) and six abstaining.